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Thomas Munson (1612-1685)
=Thomas Munson= 1612–1685 Birth 13 SEP 1612 • Rattlesden, Suffolk Co, England Death 7 MAR 1685 • Hartford, Hartford, CT, USA Thomas served on a committee of five to consider where and how a bridge might be built over the east river on the way to Connecticut. Over the years he was fairly often asked to help evaluate structures for repair and to help with the planning of dams and other projects. He was one of the men assigned to mend the ladder and landings used by the watchmen who stood look-out for fires and Indians on the days of public meetings. In 1651, he was a leader of a number considering a move to Delaware Bay because of 'difficulty in carrying on their famiy occasions with comfort in this place, there being more in the town (say 500) than can well subsist together". After five yers of attempting to start a plantation in that area, the project was dropped in 1656. In 1654, Thomas Munson was asked to deal with the Indians who were becoming a nuisance and to convince them to stop killing hogs, stealing pigs and to refrain from planting corn on Mr. Goodyear's land, and in 1660 was asked to talk with the Indians about a possible exchange of land. Thomas was one of a committee attempting a Colony School for teaching Latin, Greek and Hebrew. A schoolmaster, J. Peck, ws engaged for the school, which lasted about two years. The Hopkins Grammar School was proposed in 1648 and revived in 1654, an enterprise in which Thomas Munson was involved. In 1657, he with one other was to investigate the Neck Bridge to ascertain its safety. This is the historic bridge under which the regicides, Whalley and Goffe, hid when their pursuers rode over it into New Haven. Munson's name is mentioned the following year in connection with the mill on Mill River, at Mill Rock, New Haven. This mill was one of the places where Whalley and Goffe had hidden. At least one writer has suggested that New Haven never received from the king of England a charter as a separate colony because they had harbored the two regicides. Thomas Munson served as deputy to the General Assembly at Hartford, after New Haven was abosrbed by the Connecticut Colony. He served as foreman on the first jury trial to New Haven, and on many juries thereafter. Thomas Munson was one of the authors of a letter to Increase Mather, father of Cotton Mather, at Second Church of Christ at Boston Church. The letter explained that the New Haven Church had been largely without a pastor for ten years and referred to Cotton Mather's refusal of an earlier invitation to come to New Haven. He served as a Captain of the Dragoons in King Philip's War in 1675-76 (meeting with Governor Winthrop in that regard) with a command at Saybrooke, and was ordered to 'take under your conduct the forces that now come from the County of New Haven: and them you are forthwith to lead up to Norwottock (otherwise know as Hadley.) Philip's brother, Rev. John Munson, secretly harbored the two regicides in his home in Hadley for years.